To visit the Content Factory, you’ll first have to travel to Aubervilliers, a suburb just outside Paris. In fact the operation isn’t exactly new: it’s been functioning for a year now, but before publicizing the new unit, Publicis ensured that it was working smoothly by creating 8000 images and 1700 videos for various media platforms (including social networks, POS, TV and e-commerce). As soft openings go, that’s pretty impressive.
Occupying a space of more than 2000 square meters (almost 2,400 square yards), the factory’s studios can produce media content in real time for clients as varied as Renault, L’Oréal and Nescafé, among others. As Prodigious vice-president Frédéric Trésal Mauroz points out, “It’s not uncommon for a client to leave here after a day’s shooting with the content already live and being shared on social media.”
We asked him to take us further behind the scenes of the Content Factory.
- What does the Content Factory bring to your offering?
It enables us to create “everyday content”. It’s the production building block that fits into our strategic approach to social, editorial and related content. The Content Factory can be activated by any of the agencies in the Groupe to produce the totality of their clients’ marketing elements, conceived in advance by their teams.
In fact the Content Factory is complementary to the Groupe’s agencies in that it can efficiently produce all the assets designed to be diffused across a brand’s content and marketing networks. The operation gives the Groupe an unmatched production prowess, entirely driven by today’s communication needs. It can also function independently for advertisers who are not Publicis clients.
- Working with the Content Factory requires a fast decision-making process. How do you educate clients to work that way?
That’s a really good question! The Content Factory reinvents the process of creation and production. Everything is integrated, rather than being in silos. Content is conceived and created in close partnership with the advertisers – in order to conform to their strategic vision – the creative talent – not only agency creatives, but also directors, photographers and set designers – and the producers. Nothing goes into production unless the timing has been properly validated. The advertiser is also “on set” to check everything in real time and guarantee the fluidity and agility of production…
…The education of the clients is quasi-immediate because they understand right away the strength of this new approach and the way it meets their new content needs. It takes longer for the agencies, because the usual organizational and managerial modes are shaken up. They are no longer solely the responsibility of the agency.
- Students and young talents often use AdForum as a way of finding jobs. What kind of talents are you recruiting?
A number of them! Specifically, hybrid producers who combine an artistic vision with the technical constraints of social networks. To give a concrete example, the 9/16 (vertical) format. Also, those who can produce and post-produce: do their own editing, for example. We’re also looking for client-facing people: project managers and production assistants.
One very important point: English is essential!
- How do you see the evolution of the Content Factory? Will it open in other countries?
The Content Factory concept goes much further than the domain of social media content production. It’s a new production model based on an observation: everything is content. A gif or a post is content just as much as a 30 second TV spot. It’s a profound shift in perspective. This content feeds touch points that can establish deeper relationships between brands and their clients…
The Content Factory model will eventually encompass all an advertiser’s communication assets, as it does already for certain clients, such as L’Oréal in France, and Nestlé. It reinvents the way marketing content is conceived and produced and is slowly evolving the organization and management of that content – notably with total transparency for clients, since they are one of the main drivers of this model.
The Content Factory model is already deployed throughout the world, across more than 40 geographic Prodigious entities…Of course, it benefits from the strength and infrastructure of Prodigious, which in France handles 40% of TV advertising production, for example. And of course our international network allows us to manage, adapt and deploy production for our clients worldwide.
(Note: the interview above is a translation from French and has been edited for length and comprehension.)
To view more about Frédéric Trésal-Mauroz